Iranian Officials: Capture of Sailors Is A Display Of Power Over US

The airing of footage of the incident, which shows the sailors on their knees with their hands up while surrounded by armed Iranian Revolutionary Guards, has generated controversy, with Carter telling reporters Thursday, “Obviously I don’t like to see our people being detained by a foreign military”. The U.S. Secretary of State said at the National Defense University that the sailors have been provided with blankets and food and remarked how important is the role of diplomacy in order to maintain the country “safe, secure and strong”.

General Lloyd Austin, who leads the USA military’s Central Command, said: “We’ll know a lot more after we’ve finished debriefing our sailors”.

Iranian government-controlled television was playing video Wednesday of one of the sailors apologizing for entering Iranian territorial waters. An Iranian navy commander says authorities are satisfied the U.S. naval boats entered Iranian territory unintentionally.

The US and Islamic republic’s officials scrambled to defuse the situation, which unfolded as Iran’s nuclear accord with world powers reached implementation.

In the end, Iran released the U.S. sailors – nine men and one woman – on Wednesday.

“It was a misunderstanding”, the sailor said on the video.

On Friday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that the administration was not embarrassed by the images of the sailors released by Iran state media.

A senior Navy official said the Navy was beginning the process of reintegrating the sailors after thorough medical, psychological and mental health examinations.

The riverine boats were released to different teams of US sailors, who took them to their original intended destination in Bahrain.

The Guards also said that Tehran had asked the United States for an apology for “violating” Iran’s waters.

The ten sailors were detained on Tuesday after their two vessels went off course near Farsi Island, where Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps has a naval base.

Attributing the boats’s incursion into Iranian waters to a navigation error marked a de-escalation in rhetoric. The Iranian boats escorting the Riverine boats then turned back as they neared the American ship.

Kerry, one of his top aides said, in essence told Zarif at one point that “if we are able to do this in the right way, we can make this into what will be a good story for both of us”.